Evacuation begins as Canadians flee Libya by boat: reports

As terror tightened its grip on Libya, Canadians fled the North
African country by boat late Wednesday, with many more expected to board an
evacuation charter flight from the capital of Tripoli on Thursday.

At least 26 Canadians were on board an American vessel that had left Libya
bound for Malta, according to reports citing Foreign Affairs officials. The
ship had been delayed previously due to bad weather.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Lynn Meahan said Wednesday that
the evacuations, which follow evacuations from Egypt earlier this month, will
continue through Thursday.

She said a Skylink charter flight is scheduled to leave Rome at 10 a.m. ET
and arrive in Tripoli around noon. Meahan said the flight, which can
accommodate 220 passengers, will then leave Tripoli around 2 p.m. and return to
Rome.

In a letter distributed to Canadians registered with the embassy in Tripoli,
those who hoped to board the Thursday charter flight were asked to present
themselves to Canadian officials at the airport at 10 a.m. As of Wednesday
there were 344 Canadian citizens registered with the embassy in Tripoli.

"The number of Canadians registered with us who have expressed their
intention to leave Libya currently stands at 213,” said Foreign Affairs
Minister Lawrence Cannon late Wednesday evening in a statement.

"Canadian citizens eligible to travel must ensure that they present the
proper documentation. Immediate family members-spouse and children-who are not
Canadian citizens must provide valid documentation for entry into Italy as well
as proof of family relationship.”

Eight staff members from Foreign Affairs will be on the flight to help
process the evacuees, Meahan said, adding that four will remain in the Libyan
capital to work out of the Canadian Embassy to help Canadians who remain in the
country.

Passengers must sign an agreement to pay back a $500 fee to board the flight.
A similar fee was also required for the Egypt flights. Passengers are
permitted to take one piece of luggage, weighing no more than 20 kilograms.

“They will be permitted to depart from Libya without an exit visa, which is
normally required,” Meahan said.

Violent protests against leader Moammar Gadhafi continued to ravage parts of
the country Wednesday, with thousands of protesters holding their ground in the
streets of Benghazi, the centre of the revolt against Gadhafi. They were
setting off fireworks and condemning the dictator’s 41-year reign over the
country.

Gadhafi this week called in the military to gun down civilian protesters in
a bid to preserve his dictatorship.

Dimitri Soudas, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, said in a
statement on Twitter that in addition to Canadians, foreign nationals from the
U.S., Britain and other countries were also on board the ship Wednesday.

The letter from Foreign Affairs also provided advice for Canadians who will
remain in the country, at least in the immediate future.

“Canadians in the eastern part of the country (particularly Benghazi, Derna,
Baida and Tobruk) are encouraged to remain in place and limit movements to
only essential ones if safe to do so,” the letter reads. “It is possible that
sources of supply and services will be disrupted. If the situation further
deteriorates, you might be required to move elsewhere.”

The letter advises Canadian nationals to gather all necessary travel and ID
documents and keep a one-week supply of food and water along with a pre-packed
suitcase within the restrictions of the charter flight.

“The government of Canada is currently looking at options to assist the
departure of Canadians from the Benghazi area and will provide information as
soon as it becomes available,” the letter reads.

Others have had to make private arrangements to flee the disintegrating
country. A Saskatchewan oil worker was safe in Malta Wednesday after fleeing
with colleagues into the Libyan desert when the drill rig they were working on
was attacked by mercenaries.

Kirk Burseth, 36, of Englefeld, a small town east of Saskatoon, escaped the
attack of the rig he was working on and was flown out of the region Wednesday.

“I can’t tell you what a relief it is to be out of Libya,” Burseth wrote
Wednesday in a short email to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Burseth was working as a manager for a drilling contractor at an oil rig
owned by a global energy company south of Tripoli, said Burseth’s wife, Andrea.

“I’m just really happy and relieved more than anything (that he’s out of
Libya),” she said. “I’ll be even more relieved once he finally gets back home.”

A group of armed mercenaries attacked the oil rig early Wednesday and
Burseth fled with the crew into the desert overnight.

All of the Libyan workers on the rig had left days before to return to their
homes, as Burseth and other expatriate workers waited to be evacuated. The
company’s efforts were thwarted by restrictions on flying in the area and
heavily guarded roads around Tripoli.

Ottawa’s evacuation plan does little to help Canadians frantically trying to
contact relatives still stuck somewhere in Libya. Dr. Abdallah Muftah, a Regina
physician, was alarmed to hear machine guns chattering in the background when
he spoke by phone with his parents in Benghazi earlier this week.

Muftah’s family and friends told him the gunfire he heard over the phone
came as mercenaries used large-calibre anti-aircraft weapons to defend their
compound against lightly armed protesters.

"They were brave, those young men," said an admiring Muftah, who added his
brother reported 60 bodies had been collected in only one night.

His fears stem in part from one key difference between the Libyan revolt and
the one which recently drove Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak from office. In
Egypt, the interior ministry’s police were kept in check by the army, which
sided with protesters.

In Libya, on the other hand, the army is relatively small – and outgunned by
police and mercenary gunmen, said Muftah.

But he added the people of Libya have reached "a point of no return" and
have concluded that giving up at this point would only open them to revenge by
Gadhafi and his gunmen.

"Hopefully, they will finish him."

In addition to Canadians, foreign nationals from many other countries are
taking steps to get out of Libya.

Turkey, which has about 25,000 citizens working in Libya’s booming oil
industry, is undertaking the largest evacuation in its history, while 21 other
governments have asked for help getting their citizens out, said Turkey’s
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

European Union states are evacuating some 10,000 EU citizens from Libya, a
spokesman for the EU executive said during a European Commission news briefing
Wednesday.

Israel said it would allow 300 Palestinians in Libya to enter Palestinian
territories in the coming days, while nationals of Lebanon, Syria and Germany
have joined thousands of Tunisians fleeing Libya across its western border, the
International Organization for Migration said.

Like Canada, Britain has said it planned to send a charter plane to Libya to
bring out Britons, and Germany urged all its citizens to leave the country.